Tuesday, April 22, 2014

{Trusting God}

I'm not sure what to do next, or where to go next, and my circumstances are changing rapidly.

This happens all the time though, and every time, the Lord has shown His faithfulness to me.

Each time I have struggled with uncertainty and I have not trusted God, things didn't go the way they were supposed to, even though He still used my circumstances for good.

Each time I have struggled with uncertainty and I have trusted God, He has shown His faithfulness and life happened the way He intended for it to happen.

God is faithful, and He always is; why is there a reason to doubt and not trust that He has everything under control?

We are stuck in this moment; we are stuck on this page of the book in life.

God is outside time and space; He is looking at all eternity as one big story in front of Him, and all we can see is today. So why do we still doubt and have trouble trusting Him?

I believe it's a) because of our fallen nature, and b) because the only other beings we trust are human beings, and they fall short of our expectations every time. So naturally, we believe that if we can't trust anyone around us, how are we expected to throw all of our trust at God?

It's understandable, as a human looking at another human.

However, God, being outside of our circumstances, and is already present at the end of our struggles, should not be doubted, should not be not trusted. You cannot say, "Trust God, He will provide your path and all that you need," but then turn around and worry about how you're going to pay for it, or doubt that you really know where you're going. You cannot trust and doubt God at the same time. James says in James 1:6, "When you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind." When you ask God for help and for His faithfulness, do so and mean it. If you doubt God, you are easily swayed by the logic of man and by what the world has to say about your circumstances and who you should trust for direction. The authors of Proverbs warn us against trusting ourselves and the world with the very popular verse, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him and He will make your paths straight," Proverbs 3:5-6. So you may have heard that quoted to you before, but really listen to its message: don't trust your personal understanding of time and your situations, but submit to what the Lord is calling you to do, even if it looks reckless, because He will make your path clear and full of growth.

If you can't trust God completely, how will you ever grow in your relationship with Him? He uses good and hard circumstances to draw us nearer to Himself, and the first step to growth in our relationship with Him is trust. Stop yourself from two-timing your trust in God: you cannot say you trust Him, then worry about what's going to happen next, or worry about what you should do, or worry that everything will go the way it's supposed to. We are not meant to be problem-proof and we cannot avoid hardships by making what we think are good decisions; we are meant to trust that God is already present at the end of every single circumstance, He's just waiting for us to trust that we will get there by His strength.

Trust God, do not doubt, even when times are uncertain.

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."